Welcome to another GamesBeat weekly roundup! This time, we reviewed Halo: The Master Chief Collection, Zynga meets earnings expectations, and one of our writers (me) explains why he’s done with Destiny.
Also, South Park made fun of “freemium” games, and it was great.
You’ll find all of that more below. Happy reading, and have a great weekend!
Pieces of flair and opinion
- The DeanBeat: Favorite female game characters that aren’t an embarrassment
- Why I’m done with Destiny
- Here’s how much nicer Grand Theft Auto looks on PlayStation 4
- 4 ways to lower your risks for game development, SuperData finds
- Learning should be about fun and games in the 21st century
- These GTA IV mods and add-ons reveal why GTA V’s first-person mode is exciting
- Watch Conan O’Brien ‘pay respects’ and hit on widows in Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare
- Gaming’s most ridiculous button prompts, including Call of Duty’s ‘Press F to Pay Respects’
- Check out Amiibo’s final retail versions for Mario, Samus, Link, and more (exclusive gallery)
- Hundreds of life-sized Tetris pieces descend on L.A. in marketing stunt
News
- Disney Interactive turns its first yearly profit
- BioWare stops short of announcing a Mass Effect trilogy remake … but it wants your thoughts
- Here’s how Mario Kart 8’s downloadable content works online
- 20% of Smash Bros. 3DS’s sales are digital — here’s why that’s so impressive
- Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare doesn’t have Share Play on PlayStation 4 (update)
- Some Xbox One Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare players cannot access their digital purchases
- Nintendo Direct trailer roundup — Zelda: Majora’s Mask, Splatoon, and more
- Fire Emblem developer’s Code Name: S.T.E.A.M. hits 3DS in the spring
- The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask coming to 3DS
- Xbox Live down intermittently for Xbox One
- Activision: Destiny has ‘9.5M registered’ players
- Activision plans Call of Duty Online launch for China in first quarter of 2015
- Activision squashes market expectations with its Q3 earnings
- Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare generates 4 times more buzz than last year’s Ghosts
- Intel Capital invests $62M in 16 tech startups
- Oculus CEO: We’re ‘very close’ to delivering consumer Rift VR headset
- Loot Entertainment moves out of Sony’s Home to become its own game studio
- You can buy one of those E.T. landfill games
- PlayStation 4 update 2.01 is now live — fixes failure to boot from rest mode
- World of Warcraft holds steady at 7.4M subscribers
- EA shutters its League of Legends-like game, Dawngate
- Grand Theft Auto V soundtrack coming to CD and vinyl in a limited run of 5,000 box sets
- Logitech’s latest gaming mouse looks like a cobra head
- Activision thinks digital will help Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare outsell 2013’s Ghosts
- DeltaDNA raises $3M for its game analytics and personalization platform
- Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare is having download issues on PlayStation 4 as well
- Microsoft is already planning a dozen more updates for Xbox One in 2015
- Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare suffering download problems on Xbox One
- RealPlayer Cloud launches apps for Mac and Xbox One
- VoodooPC founder Rahul Sood resigns from Microsoft to start his own company
- Luigi’s Mansion is now an arcade game in Japan
- Sony ‘working to resolve’ PlayStation 4 errors caused by system update 2.0
- Turtle Rock gets delayed PS4 Evolve Big Alpha up at last
- Some people are getting banned from Smash Bros. for 136 years
Mobile and social
- EEDAR deconstructs how to succeed in mobile and tablet games
- Zynga shares more of its troubles with its flagship poker game
- Why King looks better than Zynga in the casual game market
- King delivers the candy for investors as it beat Q3 earnings expectations
- Zynga generates $175M in revenue as it measures up to Wall Street expectations
- Zynga chairman Mark Pincus starts new Superlabs incubator
- ‘South Park’ is right about why ‘The Simpsons’ and ‘Family Guy’ free-to-play games stink
- Brave Frontier publisher Gumi reinforces its North American push with new Canada branch
- European game companies like Germany’s Wooga join King in dominating Facebook
- Talking Tom maker Outfit7 spins out Bee7 to improve Android game discovery
- Game studio Sleepy Giant pivots to become mobile marketing automation firm Adaptiv.io
- Midverse starts mobile publishing program to connect studios with Hollywood
- Paymentwall launches a payment suite for smart TVs so you can buy with your remote control — or smartphone
- How Android and Asia are key to Blizzard’s Hearthstone world-domination plans
- Glu Mobile sues over alleged Deer Hunter ripoff Kill Shot
- Red Hot Labs launches Toro to make mobile-ad buying easy on Facebook
- Fuse Powered acquires 2D game engine maker Corona Labs (exclusive)
- The rich get richer: Mobile heavyweights Candy Crush Saga, Clash of Clans reign worldwide
- Appnext releases its self-serve mobile advertising platform with cost controls
- Confirmed: EA’s Nick Earl takes over the studio president’s job at mobile-game company Kabam (exclusive)
Previews and interviews
- How Microsoft tackled the massive task of taking Master Chief to Xbox One (interview)
- How Activision took its toy-game smash hit Skylanders to the tablet market (interview)
- The Talos Principle underwent 15,000 hours of playtesting — but not by humans (interview)
- Dragon Age: Inquisition ties your smallest actions into a continent-wide power struggle
Reviews and impressions
- Halo: Master Chief Collection multiplayer takes you down memory lane (impressions)
- Halo: The Master Chief Collection is part time capsule, part treasure chest (review)
- ‘Halo: Nightfall’ pilot gives Master Chief’s universe a respectful Hollywood treatment
- Call of Duty’s new Combat Readiness Program makes multiplayer more fun for ‘noobs’
- Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare is a next-gen showcase — and it’s subversive, too (review)